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NO. 20 UMD AND MINNESOTA TO RENEW INTRASTATE RIVARLY THIS WEEKEND IN MINNEAPOLIS

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The high-octane UMD power play unit celebrates one of the six goals it scored at the expense of Michigan Tech last weekend

The University of Minnesota Duluth will make its final road appearances of 2009 this Friday and Saturday (Nov. 20-21) when the Bulldogs head down Interstate 35 for a two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association series with the University of Minnesota. The puck drops at 7:07 p.m. both nights at Mariucci Arena (10,000) on the Minnesota campus.

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THE RECORDS: The defending WCHA playoff champion Bulldogs are 7-4-1 overall and 4-3-1 in league play (tied for third place with the University of Denver and the University of Wisconsin). Minnesota owns a 4-5-1 record in all games and shares sixth place (with St. Cloud State University) in the WCHA standings with a 3-4-1 mark.

HOW THEY RANK: Here is how UMD and Minnesota stack up in the latest uscho.com/CBS College Sports and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls:

uscho.com USA Today UMD 20th RV
UM NR NR

ON THE AIR: This weekend’s series will be carried locally on 1490 The Fan (KQDS-AM) with Bruce Ciskie handling the play-by-play assignment. The broadcast can also be heard on KQ 105.5 in Grand Rapids/Hibbing and KQ 106.7 in Ely/Virginia as part of the Bulldog Radio Network and is available on the internet at: www.fan1490.com.

THE COACHES: The 2003-04 American Hockey Coaches Association NCAA Division I Coach of the Year (Spencer Penrose Award), Scott Sandelin is in his 10th season behind the UMD bench where he has compiled a 151-177-46 overall record -- including a 29-17-9 mark the past two seasons. His Bulldogs have advanced to four of the past seven WCHA Final Five tournaments and, last March, became the first play-in game participant to win it all in the 17-year history of that event. UMD also strung together a school-record six-game postseason winning streak in 2008-09 until it fell to Miami University 2-1 in the NCAA West Regional final. Six years ago, Sandelin, 45, turned UMD into a NCAA Frozen Four participant for the first time in nearly a generation, marshaling his troops to their most victories (they were 28-13-4 overall) and highest WCHA finish (second place on a 19-7-2 mark) in 11 seasons. For his efforts, the Hibbing, Minn., native was chosen the WCHA Coach of the Year as well as the national coach of the year by both insidecollegehockey.com and uscho.com. In 2002-03, Sandelin’s Bulldogs went 22-15-5 overall and captured fifth place in the WCHA with a 14-10-4 mark while experiencing the greatest one-season turnaround of any league club that winter. One year earlier, he guided UMD to a 13-24-1 record in all games -- nearly doubling the number of victories from the previous season (7-28-4). Sandelin officially signed on as a member of the Bulldog staff on March 31, 2000 after six years of assistant coaching deployment at North Dakota. Prior to joining the Fighting Sioux (who won two NCAA titles during his tenure), Sandelin spent the 1993-94 season as the head coach of the Fargo-Moorhead Junior Kings of the Junior Elite Hockey League after working in that same capacity (and doubling as general manager) the previous winter with the American Hockey Association’s Fargo-Moorhead Express. He capped off his four-year playing career at North Dakota in 1985-86 by being named one of 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. An All-WCHA first team pick and an All-American second team selection as a senior, Sandelin went on to play seven years of professional hockey, which included National Hockey League stints with the Montreal Canadiens (1986-88), Philadelphia Flyers (1990-91) and Minnesota North Stars (1991-92). Sandelin, one of just two current WCHA coaches to do time in the NHL, was the Montreal Canadiens’ second round pick in the 1982 NHL draft (40th choice overall). He served as Team USA’s head coach at the 2005 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships and directed that club to a fourth-place finish.

Don Lucia (University of Notre Dame, 1981) is 260-131-46 in his 11 seasons behind the Minnesota bench and directed the Gophers to back-to-back NCAA championships in 2002 and 2003, two of the last four WCHA regular season championships and three of the last seven WCHA playoff titles. Prior to his appointment with the Gophers, Lucia served a six-year head coaching stint at Colorado College where his Tigers laid claim to three WCHA regular season crowns (1993-96) and posted a 166-68-18 mark. The Grand Rapids, Minn., native also was employed for six seasons (1987-93) as head coach at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He fashions a 539-285-75 collegiate coaching record, including a 30-18-3 mark against UMD (20-12-3 at Minnesota, 10-4-0 at Colorado College and 0-2-0 while with the Alaska Fairbanks program).

THE RIVALRY: This weekend’s series will mark the 209th and 210th meetings ever between UMD and Minnesota. The Gophers hold a a 127-68-13 lead in the all-time series, which began back on Dec. 1, 1952 at the Hippodrome in Eveleth. The last time the two clubs butted heads -- March 19, 2009 at the Xcel Energy Center -- the Bulldogs skated off with a 2-1 triumph in the play-in game of the WCHA Final Five championship. Minnesota took three of the four points in its lone 2008-09 regular season series with UMD via a 2-2 overtime tie and 5-3 win on Feb. 27-28 at Mariucci Arena.

LAST WEEKEND: UMD fell 3-2 to Michigan Tech University on Friday night (snapping the Bulldogs’ four-game home winning streak) before bouncing back with a convincing 8-1 victory the following evening. UMD, which wound up outshooting Michigan Tech 98-37 on the weekend (50-19 in Friday’s loss), got five-point nights from both junior right winger Justin Fontaine and sophomore right winger Mike Connolly.

Minnesota traded home wins with visiting Bemidji State University, dropping a 6-1 decison on Sunday after prevailing 4-1 in the series opener.

THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING: Senior center Drew Akins has been entrusted with team captaincy responsibilities for the 2009-10 Bulldogs while senior left winger Jordan Fulton and junior defenseman Mike Montgomery are serving as alternate captains.

HATS OFF TO FONTAINE: A near record-breaking performance last Saturday night earned Justin Fontaine his second WCHA Offensive Player of the Week award this season. The Bonnyville, Alberta, product pumped in four goals in UMD’s 8-1 home win over Michigan Tech University, becoming only the ninth Bulldog ever to do so and the first in almost 12 years. Both his four goals and five points (he added an assist) were one shy of Bulldog single-game records.
THANKS FOR MEMORIES: Friday evening will mark the Bulldogs’ first visit to Mariucci Arena since last March when they bowed out to the University of Miami 2-1 in the NCAA West Regional title game. That loss drew the curtain on the longest post-season winning streak (six games) in program history.

TOP ‘DOGS: The Bulldogs currently sport NCAA individual leaders in a number of categories including: scoring (18 points by both junior right winger Justin Fontaine and sophomore center Jack Connolly), goals (11 by Fontaine), assists (14 by junior left winger Rob Bordson) and power play goals (8 by Fontaine).

POWER O’PLENTY: UMD will come into Friday’s clash against Minnesota armed with the nation’s sixth most effective power play. The Bulldogs have cashed in on 26.5 percent (22 of 83) of their man advantage opportunities and were 6-for-12 on the power play last weekend against Michigan Tech. UMD, which led the WCHA in overall power play efficiency one year ago (21.5 percent), has tallied at least one goal with the man advantage in 10 of its 12 games to date (it went 0-of-8 against Northern Michigan University on Oct. 11 and 0-of-5 on Oct. 30 vs. Clarkson University).
OH WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES: An early front runner for the WCHA’s mythical Breakthrough Player of Year award, junior left winger Rob Bordson has racked up three goals and 14 assists in 12 outings this season after coming into the year having scored seven points in 42 career outings. Twelve of his 17 points this fall have come on the power play -- a figure unsurpassed by any WCHA skater at the moment.

BULLDOG BITS: The Bulldogs are 31-0-3 when they’ve held a lead heading into the third period since falling 3-2 at St. Cloud State in three overtimes in the third, and decisive, game of the 2007 WCHA playoffs (March 11) ... In Saturday’s 8-1 triumph over Michigan Tech, Justin Fontaine and sophomore left winger Mike Connolly each collected five points, which is believed to be the first time two Bulldogs have ever accomplished that feat in the same game. Fontaine became the first UMD puckster since March 13, 1998 (Jeff Scissons vs. Minnesota in the WCHA playoffs) -- to turn in a four-goal night while Connolly scored once and helped set up four other tallies ... UMD is averaging a whopping 38.5 shots a night in 2008-09 while giving up just under 29 ... Despite being held pointless in both ends of last weekend’s series against Michigan Tech, Dylan Olsen still ranks second among WCHA rookie defensemen in scoring. The Calgary, Alberta product who was the Chicago Blackhawks’ first-round pick in the 2009 National Hockey League draft, has six points (all assists) to his credit this season ... The Bulldogs are unbeaten (5-0-1) in the six games they have gotten on the scoreboard first this season and have scored more first-period goals (13) than any other WCHA contingent ... Sophomore defenseman Brady Lamb has collected a personal-high eight points thus far in 2009-10, including seven (four goals and three assists) in his last four games ... UMD is the second-most penalized team in the NCAA I ranks at the moment, averaging 22.0 minutes of penalty box time a game, which trails Ferris State University (22.9) in that dubious department ... Freshman right winger Mike Seidel had his streak of consecutive games with a goal end at four Saturday night against Michigan Tech. That’s the longest such streak by a Bulldog rookie since fellow Illinois native Tim Stapleton tallied once in five straight outings between Feb. 15-March 7, 2003. Seidel is the only one of six UMD newcomers with a goal to his credit ... Talk about a couple of good luck charms: UMD is 22-5-1 in games in which Jack Connolly has picked up a point during the past two seasons and 12-1-1 when senior left winger Jordan Fulton has done so ... Twenty of the Bulldogs’ 91 games (21.9 percent) since the beginning of the 2007-08 season have required overtime. UMD has lost just one of those extra session affairs during that stretch, going 4-1-15 with the lone setback being inflicted by North Dakota on March 2, 2008 ... Minnesota is the lone WCHA club Jack Connolly went pointless against during his rookie season ... This marks the final full season the Bulldogs will call the DECC home as they will move to a new $70 million, 6,800-seat facility a few hundred feet away next December. Minnesota is scheduled to play one more regular season series at the DECC (Feb. 26-27, 2010) and will make its first trip to the new digs on Feb. 4-5, 2011 ... Mike Connolly is the only Bulldog who is averaging a point a game or better for his career (55 points in 53 outings) ... Senior center Drew Akins leads all current Bulldogs in career points vs. Minnesota (1-3=4 in nine games).

UP NEXT: UMD will be idle until it returns to the DECC on Dec. 4-5 to host defending WCHA regular season champion North Dakota.

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